This is my life

I had a whole overview of the race including day before, warm up and updates by mile. Decided since I don’t think that many people care or even read this I’ll keep it short.

Goal was sub 1:30:00 and I was able to finish in 1:29:06! Strava result here. MIssed the first wave because I had to poop so I had to weave through the second wave in the first few miles! Super ecstatic about this finish! Can’t wait to see what this year holds more me!

That being said, I hit one of my goals this year of a sub 1:30 Half. My other goals for year are:

I’m here in Taipei for the AMPA trade show. Flight was ok, a little warm on the plane plus the two people next to me busted out some hard boiled eggs to eat which was odd. Also the guy in front of me had the same cat neck pillow I bought at Daiso, what are the odds of that?

Here’s the hotel I’ll be staying at, the Ambassador Hotel which is pretty nice and actually has a fitness center. I’ll be using this to get some runs in because walking around just now didn’t seem to runner friendly.

Was pretty hungry since the last meal on the plane was not very good and I barely ate any of it. Picked up some sort of bun filled with veggies and another filled with beef, both very good and only cost NT$50 which is about $1.75 US. A little further down the same street was a dumpling spot that was pretty busy and looked really good. Got a plate of 10 for only NT$60 which is about $2 US, these were made fresh and were really good! I thought I got a lot by getting 10 but I looked around and people had plates of 20 for just them. Guess I wasn’t really that hungry compared to the locals.

Welp I did it. I ran my first marathon. After a 19 week training program with the Long Beach Running Club I can call myself I marathon runner. In the days leading up to to the L.A. Marathon I was nervous about hitting my goals that I had set for myself;

A. Finish in 3:50

B. Finish under 4 hours.

Whenever somebody had asked me what my goal for the marathon was my response was always “Sub 4.” I didn’t tell anyone about my 3:50 goal because I honestly didn’t know if it was realistic for me or not since with running anything over 18 miles in training I’ve had cramping issues and my pace slowed down quite a bit after that.

I hit by B Goal but not my A Goal. I thought I has done enough as far as being hydrated all week and on race day as well as proper calorie and salt replenishment but again the cramps started around mile 18 with things getting really bad halfway through mile 20. At this point there was a lot of walking and stopping to stretch out but keeping an eye on my watch and how much distance was left, I was sure would still hit my sub 4 hour goal. Knowing that at 17 miles in I had an average pace of 8:33 and sustaining that till mile 20 then losing 20 seconds of overall average pace int he last 6 miles is a little disheartening especially since those miles are predominately downhill.

Doing some more reading this week looks like it’s just a part of long distance running, my muscles may have not been used to the demand of 3+ hours of running and should have got in some more long runs or incorporated some weight training and better recovery practices. There are just so many variables to this that I still need to figure out.

Overall I am happy that I hit one of my goals and was able to share the whole experience with my family, friends and the thousands of strangers cheering along the route. Would I do this course again? I told myself no but there’s something inside me that knows I can better this time in the future. Don’t know why I didn’t get the two pictures that I wanted which was one of me after the finish by myself and one with my brother since’s he’s guided me along this journey… man I F’d up.

How has everyone been? It’s been a while since I’ve posted. It seems as though my life has switched from predominantly cars to running and just being active in general.

Last weekend I had the pleasure of helping @lbrc with their aid station for the Long Beach Marsthon. Seeing our friends and other runners suffering with smiles was such a joy. The aid station was originally just intended for LBRC runners and friends but as it turned out, we ended up giving aid to pretty much all marathon runners! The fact that they were doing something epic was inspiring.

Witnessing all of this made me ask myself why am I not running? Why am I not participating? I really don’t have any excuses, I could have ran the half marathon if I had prepared myself but I guess I was content on running 5-6 mile distances. That weekend, that’s all going to change. I’ve registered for the L.A. Marsthon and with the help of my brother Cong (@congruns), the @MiniMall Milers and LBRC I’ll be able to finish it! The only person stopping me from doing this is myself!

I’ve been wanting to go on the Monday Hill Training run with the Long Beach Running Club for a while now. All the running that I’ve been doing has been flat for the most part and I’ve read that hill training really make you a stronger runner. This is a 4.5 miles run wiht various inclines and declines and boy was it tough. I actually had to stop and walk for a little because my heart rate was about to hit 180 and I definitely didn’t want that to happen. Big thanks to LBRC for letting me join, hope to make this one again soon!

This post is a little late but hey at least I’m posting something up! What a busy weekend it was! With family and visitors coming from Arizona, the Bay Area and Kansas it was sure to be a fun filled (and extended) weekend!

Saturday Morning I headed to Cars and Coffee in San Clemente with my buddies Steve and Ronnie who both have Lamborghini Huracans. Afterwards we headed to Newport Lamborghini’s monthly cars how and it was packed! So many people and exotics! I even saw a La Ferrari in person for the first time, very nice car but I’d still take a McLaren P1 GTR over it any day!

Ronnie’s UGR Huracan and Steve’s Advan GT’d Huracan

Camaro ZL1… so badass!

The La Ferrari

Later that day I just hung out at my sisters and met her in laws from Kansas, my sister’s family from Arizona and family from the Bay area. Most of the night consisted of playing hide and seek with the kids as well as some intense games of Knockout!